santa ana winds

More than 250,000 people fled their homes in southern California as some of the state's worst wildfires, fueled by strong winds, scorched more than 100,000 acres and caused at least one death.

Twelve wildfires have burned more than 100,665 acres (40,739 hectares) from Santa Barbara to San Diego County near the Mexican border, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry.

Fires in northern San Diego County forced evacuations of 250,000 people, including communities with million-dollar homes. San Diego officials said the damage could be worse than the destruction caused four years ago by similar fires, which cost $1.1 billion and damaged 4,847 structures.

``This is nowhere near finished,'' said Chief Bill Metcalf, San Diego County area fire coordinator. ``It is worse than many of us imagined. We're seeing 100- to 200-feet flame lengths and truly explosive fire behavior.''

The fires also destroyed buildings in Malibu, where many movie stars have homes northwest of Los Angeles, and Lake Arrowhead, a mountain community northeast of Los Angeles. Roads and freeways near the affected areas were closed because of the fires or jammed with people fleeing.

California power-system operators declared an electricity transmission emergency after the wildfires disabled wires and required utilities to curtail supplies.

Aircraft sometimes were grounded because of high winds, said Patti Roberts, a spokeswoman for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's emergency office.

State of Emergency

``There are a number of fires that are zero-contained,'' Roberts said.

Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura, according to a statement on the state Office of Emergency Services' Web site. The proclamation allows the agency to deploy emergency staff, equipment and facilities and provide assistance to local governments, according to the statement.

The fires are ``beyond our capabilities,'' said San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Tracy Jarman. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said the Red Cross ``is maxed out.''

The governor ordered 1,500 National Guardsmen to assist in fighting the fires or provide logistics.

`Tragic Time'

``It's a tragic time for California,'' Schwarzenegger said after touring the affected areas. ``The conditions are really terrible.''

Most of the new blazes started yesterday, ``but they are already very widespread and are likely to spread quite rapidly,'' said Neena Saith, a catastrophe response analyst with Risk Management Solutions in London.

Paula Rosput Reynolds, chief executive officer of property insurer Safeco Corp., said the company was watching developments ``pretty closely.'' State Farm Mutual Insurance Co., the largest insurer of homes in the U.S., has received its first claim from a homeowner for fire damage, spokesman Fraser Engerman said.

Towns in northern San Diego being evacuated include Rancho Bernardo, Poway, Ramona and Escondido. Hewlett-Packard Co. evacuated employees from its printer-research facility located in northern San Diego county, spokesman Edward Woodward said.

Among those who evacuated was San Diego Charger LaDainian Tomlinson, the most valuable player last year in the National Football League, the Associated Press reported.

Rancho Santa Fe

Directly in the path of one of the fires is secluded, affluent Rancho Santa Fe, an exclusive residential community on rolling hills filled with eucalyptus trees, orchards, stables and riding trails.

Located about 5 miles inland from the ocean and about 15 miles northeast of the better-known coastal community of La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe was ranked by Forbes magazine last year as the second-most expensive postal code in the nation based on median sales price. The average sales price of a home there this month was $2.5 million, according to DataQuick real estate compilations.

``This fire will probably be the worst this county has ever seen, worse than the Cedar Fire,'' San Diego Sheriff Bill Kolender said, referring to the 2003 fire.

All schools in San Diego county are closed tomorrow.

Santa Ana Winds

Endangered animals like the California condor are being evacuated from the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The park should be safe because it is heavily irrigated and much brush has been removed, the San Diego Zoo said on its Web site.

Gusting Santa Ana winds carried embers as far as 2 miles (3 kilometers) to kindle new fires. Temperatures may surpass 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius). Some areas of southern California have received little more than an inch (2 centimeters) of rain since Jan. 1.

``Without a fire, this would be a windstorm. When you add in the fire, it's a firestorm,'' Los Angeles County Fire Chief Michael Freeman said.

The fires are burning areas ranging from 50 acres to 30,000 acres, Berlant said. About 100 engines and 1,000 personnel were on the scene of each fire as firefighters were imported from northern California, Nevada and Arizona.

Firefighters Hurt

A civilian was killed and four firefighters were hurt in the San Diego-area blaze that destroyed ``multiple structures,'' Berlant said.

In the Malibu area, one of the buildings destroyed was Hodge Castle, a 10,500-square-foot (975-square-meter) landmark owned by philanthropist Lilly Lawrence, which overlooks the Malibu lagoon.

California power system operators told owners of electrical generators in the southern part of the state to defer any maintenance today to ensure availability from local power plants after wildfires disabled a transmission line.

The Southwest Power Link that transmits electricity from Arizona to the San Diego region was disabled yesterday, California Independent System Operator spokesman Gregg Fishman said in a telephone interview.

To contact the reporters on this story: Peter J. Brennan in Los Angeles a Nancy Kercheval in Washington at
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The Santa Ana winds in Southern California sweep down across the deserts and across the Los Angeles Basin pushing dust and smoke from wildfires far out into the Pacific Ocean.The Santa Ana winds (or Santana winds[citation needed]) are warm, dry winds that characteristically appear in Southern California and Northern Baja California weather during autumn and early winter.

Contents
1 Meteorology
1.1 Santa Ana fog
1.2 Local impact
2 Etymology
3 Santa Ana winds in popular culture
3.1 Television
3.2 Songs
3.3 Movies
3.4 Fiction
3.5 Miscellaneous
4 See also
5 References



[edit] Meteorology
Santa Anas are a type of f?hn wind, the result of air pressure buildup in the high-altitude Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. This high energy wind spills out of the Great Basin and is pulled by gravity into the surrounding lowlands. The air circulates clockwise around the high pressure area bringing winds from the east and northeast to Southern California (the reverse of the westerly winds characteristic of the latitude).

It is often said that the air is heated and dried as it passes through the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, but according to meteorologists this is a popular misconception. The Santa Ana winds usually form during autumn and early spring when the desert is relatively cold, although they may form at virtually any time of year. The air heats up due to adiabatic heating while being compressed during its descent. While the air has already been dried by orographic lift prior to reaching the Great Basin, the relative humidity of the air declines rapidly as it descends and warms in its final stages as it passes over the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges.

The air is then forced down the mountain slopes out towards the Pacific coast; the air mass is further heated by compression as it drops in altitude before reaching the Los Angeles Basin western San Diego County and Tijuana (Baja California) at typical speeds of 35 knots. The southern California coastal region gets some of its hottest weather of the year during autumn while Santa Ana winds are blowing. During Santa Ana conditions it is typically hotter along the coast than in the deserts and the humidity plummets to less than 15%.


QuikSCAT image showing the speed of the Santa Ana winds (m/s).As the Santa Ana winds are channeled through the mountain passes they can approach hurricane force. The combination of wind, heat, and dryness turns the chaparral into explosive fuel for the infamous wildfires the region is known for. Wildfires fanned by Santa Ana winds burned 721,791 acres (2,921 km2) in two weeks during October 2003.

Although the winds often have a destructive nature, they have some positive benefits as well. They cause cold water to rise from the bottom of the ocean to the top, bringing with it many nutrients that ultimately benefit local fisheries. As the winds blow over the ocean, sea surface temperatures drop about 4 °C (7 °F), indicating an upwelling of deep ocean water. Chlorophyll concentrations in the surface water go from negligible, in the absence of winds, to very active at more than 1.5 milligrams per cubic meter in the presence of the winds.


[edit] Santa Ana fog
A Santa Ana fog is derivative phenomenon in which a ground fog settles in Southern California during the end of a Santa Ana wind episode. When Santa Ana conditions prevail, with winds in the lower two to three kilometers (1.25-1.8 m) of the atmosphere from the north through east, the lower atmosphere continues to be dry. But as soon as the Santa Ana winds cease, the cool and moist marine layer forms rapidly. The air in the marine layer becomes very moist and fog occurs.[1]


[edit] Local impact
To the north, in the Santa Barbara area, the Santa Ana winds are weaker and are usually held at bay by topography: the local mountains offer no prominent outlets, in the form of passes or river valleys, from the elevated inland source areas. However, a variant of the Santa Ana wind, known locally as Sundowner winds, often invade the area. These are downslope winds which occur when a high pressure area lies due north of Santa Barbara, and occur most frequently in the late spring to early summer, and are strongest at sunset, or "sundown," hence their name. The hottest temperature ever recorded in North America outside Death Valley, 133 °F (56 °C), was unofficially recorded on June 17, 1859 during a Sundowner wind. However, weather instruments during that period were unreliable and the actual temperature was closer to 109 °F (43 °C), the highest official reading. Most meteorologists do not recognize this historical record.

In the Brookings and Gold Beach areas along the southern Oregon coast they are called the Brookings Effect (or Chetco Effect); and in the northern Plains such winds off the Rocky Mountains are called Chinook winds.

In the Los Angeles Basin, the winds are often credited with the extremely high visibility experienced in the area during the winter, in contrast to the hazy, smoggy summers. The winds are also associated with some of the area's largest and deadliest wildfires, including the state's largest fire on record, the Cedar Fire, as well as the Laguna Fire, Old Fire, Esperanza Fire and the Great Fire of 1889.

The adverse pulmonary health impacts have been understood by local doctors for decades; the winds pick up and transmit grit, dust, pollens, mold spores and other irritants and allergens for considerable distances. Residents regularly notice a build-up of dust in their homes and grit on their properties during these periods, which are frequent during the winter.


[edit] Etymology

Wind patterns in the western United States result in the Santa Anas.Santa Ana winds may get their name from the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County, the Santa Ana River or Santa Ana Canyon, along which the winds are particularly strong. There are also claims that the original form is Santana winds, from the Spanish vientos de Satán ("winds of Satan", Sanatanas being a rarer form of Satanás), and that this in turn is a translation of a native name in some unspecified language.


[edit] Santa Ana winds in popular culture
" Those hot dry winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. "
―Raymond Chandler, "Red Wind"



[edit] Television
The above Chandler passage is read by Chris Stevens (John Corbett) at the beginning of the episode "Ill Wind" of the TV series Northern Exposure.
This passage is also quoted by Ed Asner in his role as Lou Grant in The Mary Tyler Moore Show as an example of how to write prose.
Kitty's fear of the winds were featured in the "Date Night" episode of the ABC series Brothers & Sisters.
Several references made in the hit TV show Beverly Hills, 90210.

[edit] Songs
The 1970 Tim Buckley song "Venice Beach" includes the lyrics "White heat of swaying day/Dark slap of conga cries/'Come out and breathe as one'/Salt sea and fiddles drone/Out on the dancing stone/While the Santanas blow/Sing the music boats in the bay."
The Beach Boys song "Santa Ana Winds" appears on their 1980 album Keepin' the Summer Alive.
Bad Religion mentions the winds, using their nickname "murder winds," in the song "Los Angeles Is Burning" from the album The Empire Strikes First. "When the hills of Los Angeles are burning/ Palm trees are candles in the murder winds/ So many lives are on the breeze/ Even the stars are ill at ease/ And Los Angeles is burning."
There is a reference made to the winds in the Steely Dan song, "Babylon Sisters" ".... here come those Santa Ana Winds again."
The song "LA Woman" by the Doors references taking a look around "See which way the wind blows" and contains imagery in which the city's "hair is burnin' hills are filled with fire."
The song "Summer Rain" by Belinda Carlisle has the lyrics "I remember the rain on our skin. And his kisses hotter than the Santa Ana Winds."
The song "Catch My Disease" by Ben Lee has the lyrics "She told me about the winds from Santa Ana/ And that's the way I like it."
The Santa Ana Winds are referred to in the song "I Love L.A" by Randy Newman: "And the Santa Ana Winds blowing hot from the north..."
Rancid makes reference to the winds in the song "Brad Logan" on the South Park Chef Aid album. "California sun has sunk/ behind the Anaheim hills; here comes the night/ I was high on junk/ and the warm winds of Santa Ana feel alright."
The song "Mansfield" by Elton John mentions a "California moon" and contains the lyrics "The Santa Ana winds blew warm into your room".
Survivor has an atmospheric song named "Santa Ana Winds" that refers to a disastrous woman.
Danish band Mew's song "The Zookeeper's Boy" refers to the winds in the lyric "Santa Ana winds bring seasickness."
Jason Mraz's "Silent Love Song" refers to the Santa Ana winds.
The a capella group The Bobs' song "Santa Ana Woman" has the line "The Santa Ana winds had come back / And the whole city of LA was acting like it had PMS."
The band Animal Logic (band) (bringing together the Police drummer Stewart Copeland, jazz fusion bassist Stanley Clarke, singer-songwriter Deborah Holland and as a guest guitar player former Yes member Steve Howe Steve Howe (guitarist)) recorded a song "Winds Of Santa Ana" appearing in the band's self-titled 1989 album.

[edit] Movies
In the 1978 film Big Wednesday, the Santa Ana winds are mentioned in the opening sequence.
In the 1994 film Mixed Nuts, the Santa Ana winds are mentioned briefly.
In the 2006 film The Holiday, the Santa Ana winds are constantly shown, and Jack Black's character 'Miles' mentions that when they blow, "all bets are off" and "anything can happen".
In the 1995 film My Family, the Santa Ana Winds are mentioned in the sequence when Chucho (Esai Morales), a gang member, is shot dead by the LAPD.
In the 1983 film Breathless, the Santa Ana Winds are described by Jesse Lujack (Richard Gere) to Monica Poiccard (Valérie Kaprisky).

[edit] Fiction
The Santa Ana winds are important to the plot of the book White Oleander by Janet Fitch.

[edit] Miscellaneous
There is also a band named The Santa Ana Winds Youth Band.
An upscale version of the Volkswagen Passat was sometimes called the Santana. Volkswagen has often named its cars for winds or currents.

[edit] See also